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IN a city drawn into a spiral of violence where crime, politics and extremism are interlinked, law-enforcement agencies are poorly resourced and conviction rates low, where religious institutions with political agendas teach lessons of hate and sectarian fault lines are ripped apart, it is difficult to clearly identify the causes of sectarian violence.

Since 2007, increasing violence in Pakistan — with militants targeting political leaders, the military and police, clerics, tribal leaders, Shias, and schools — has found an urban epicentre in Karachi. In its latest security report, the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) reported a 53pc increase in sectarian violence for 2013. More than 85pc of such attacks and 68pc of the people killed were concentrated in Karachi, Quetta, Gilgit and Kurram Agency.

Last year, 212 were killed in 132 sectarian-related attacks mostly in Karachi. However, a cycle of tit-for-tat sectarian killings on Karachi’s streets since 2011 has sparked ethno-political violence with various sectarian outfits contributing to the growing body count.

The banned sectarian group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ), sharing operational and ideological ties with Al Qaeda and the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), demonstrates how militancy elsewhere in the country affects the city through a lethal nexus.

In the case of the LJ-TTP link, Chaudhry Aslam Khan, the head of the Sindh police’s CID anti-extremism cell, who was recently assassinated in Karachi, confirmed in an interview shortly before his killing that both conduct joint terrorist activities in the city. The leader of LJ’s Balochistan wing, Usman Saifullah Kurd, is also connected with Karachi’s sectarian militants, he had said.

Aslam had said in a January 7 interview that “after the crackdown against LJ in Karachi and Punjab, their cadres had found sanctuaries in the tribal areas.” He said that in a raid last November, the police had killed LJ’s Karachi chief Gul Hasan, involved in suicide attacks on the Haideri mosque and Imambargah Ali Raza (2004) and an attack on the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, Justice Maqbool Baqar in August 2013.

Ideological and turf wars between the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat\Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, following the Sunni Deobandi school and the Barelvi Sunnis, represented mainly by the Sunni Tehreek, adds to this volatile cauldron. It is incorrect to differentiate between terrorist groups and sectarian outfits because they share similar agendas and religious ideologies, says political analyst Dr Ayesha Siddiqa.

Nobody knows what exactly drives sectarian violence, whether it is the consequence of state policies of Islamisation of laws and education, parallel legal and judicial systems, politicisation of the police force, failure of the state and the military, and the marginalisation of secular forces.

French researcher Marium Abou Zahab believes that links with the Middle East could be part of the explanation (proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran) but views sectarian violence as an indigenous phenomenon. With sporadic administrative and legal efforts to dismantle well-entrenched groups, leaders of supposedly banned groups such as the SSP operate with virtual immunity, using new avenues (social media) to propagate their militant ideas and enter electoral politics aligned to mainstream political parties.

Aurangzeb Farooqi, the Karachi head of the ASWJ, terms Shias ‘infidels’, attributing an increase in sectarianism to similar trends observed in the wider Muslim world. Condemning violence, he denies links with the LJ, calling for dialogue with ‘rival groups.’ He blames the police for failing to protect Sunnis as hundreds have been killed in reprisal attacks.

For their part, Shia political party Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) claims they do not indulge in violent killing. They might have organised the largely peaceful demonstrations in Karachi and other towns to protest against the Quetta bombings last year, but the police suspect that some have adopted a violent retaliatory path, with a Karachi-based Shia militia responsible for attacks on Deobandi clerics.

MWM spokesperson Ali Ahmar accuses LJ of fuelling sectarian violence, claiming that 500 Shias, including professors, students, lawyers and doctors, were targeted in 2013 with perpetrators arrested only in four to five cases. If young Shias are aligning themselves with MWM, then interviews with moderate Deobandi clerics suggest that the killing of students and teachers is pushing men with no sectarian links towards Deobandi groups.

The cost of militancy includes damage to the economy, national security, citizen morale and political stability. Shrinking space for an alternative liberal discourse is evident as political patronage for the religious right goes unchecked with banned extremist organisations and madressahs raising their public profile, providing endless recruits and sectarian-oriented curricula and publications to further fuel intolerance and bigotry.

As Karachi’s sectarian militants conduct ‘business’ on home turf with their political utility intact, the consequences are uncertain but definitely deadly as Pakistan’s security establishment nurtures some Taliban groups in the border regions as proxies for the post-2014 period.

Comments (6) Closed

The safest and best option is for to create another Pakistan on the basis of Sects. Religion is no glue, perhaps Sects will prove to be an effective one.

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MUKHTIAR AHMED

Jan 14, 2014 05:53pm

The issue of Karachi is the result of long term planning of international forces in the game local players has been used

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Bhatti

Jan 14, 2014 08:50pm

Situation in Karachi could improve if we do the following and more: Clean up police force. Give jobs in police dept. to locals (people of Karachi). Increase police budget and education budget for Karachi. Let the people of Karachi (people who live in Karachi regardless of what language they speak) run their own affairs without interference from Sindh Govt. or Islamabad. Put more money to improve infrastructure in Karachi, etc.

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adil

Jan 15, 2014 06:36am

Remove PPP from Karachi, clean up police department and Karachi will be OK.

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ali ahmed

Jan 15, 2014 04:01pm

This all started with fake Islamization by Zia regime. Had they thought the consequences of what they were doing, they probably would not have nurtured such outfits, which today are hitting the very same country and establishment that fed them.

The unfortunate part of the story is that establishment still has such people in their rank and files who support sectarian elements on one pretext or the other. If we want Pakistan to flourish, make progress and have respect in the comity of nations, establishment of this country will have to seize all backing to these outfits. The most difficult part is purging of such elements in intelligence agencies.

These banned outfits can never be our assets. They are the greatest threat for security and stability of the nation. The sooner establishment understand it the better it is for this country and for them as well.

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Allahdino M H Kango

Jan 17, 2014 11:17am

@adil:PPP is there because it has majority of Sindh Assembly seats from whole Sindh and democracy demands that it should be accepted as de facto ruler. It will never do injustice to your likes who create chaos and malign PPP. Let us respect the majority in government and help it to maintain law and order all over Sindh.